WIN THE LOST - SEL, EE, SE, TE - HOLY GHOST REVIVAL

There are several types of evangelistic tools or systematic ways for reaching and winning the lost.  Over the years these tools have been offered by leaders in church organizations.  As a Christian and minister, I have been to the training sessions for SEL, EE, SE, TE and others.  The thrust of most of these training sessions has been to train and motivate ministers, lay-leaders and members to witness to people who need Christ as Savior and Lord.  These are basically good tools but are not most important for being motivated to witness to the lost - yes, love them, pray for them, care for them, share with them in their struggles and feelings and be there for them over the long-haul until they become strong enough to be witnesses for Christ too.  There is another vital part of being a witnessing disciple of Christ, but first here are explanations and links to some of the evangelistic tools - especially for personal evangelism.

One of the evangelistic tools involved doing a list of planned items.  A little booklet was given in a training session that listed these items for winning someone to Christ.  These items were: find someone or think of someone, pray for them daily, connect with them, fellowship with them by having coffee or a meal together once a week and do something special for them weekly - in short be a friend to them.  The steps were to be repeated unlimited times until the person was open to make a decision for Christ and eventually become strong enough as a Christian to reach others with the same plan and continue as a friend to them indefinitely but hopefully, eventually to see them be born again.  This was offered to a group of ministers by a former TN State Bishop, Eugene Weakley, of the Church of God of Prophecy in the late 1990s, the best I remember.  This was known as Team Evangelism or TE.  This was a type of friendship evangelism and offered some very helpful tools for witnessing by being a friend to the person.

A decade or so before the TE training in the district where I was a minister, we met several weeknights over a period of weeks to be trained and honed in the skills of meeting someone and becoming effective in witnessing to them.  At some point, after connecting with them and starting a friendly open-ended conversation, a pointed question was asked.  "Have you come to the place in your life to know that if you die today you would go to heaven?"  Then, provided the person is willing to respond and how they respond, the next question would be, "If you did die today and stand before God and He asked you why should I let you into my heaven, what would you answer?"  Depending on their answer, the follow-up question would respond one way or the other to their need for repentance and being born again, hoping to lead them in prayer for salvation if they are open to receiving Christ as Savior and Lord.  Or, continuing to answer their questions to help them make a future decision.  This program was called Sharing Eternal Life or SEL.  Training manuals were prepared and used but as far as I know there is no web site for SEL.  I still have the materials.

Back around the middle (2004-2005) of the last decade there was training offered in another evangelistic program in our TN district.  Training was offered one night a week for several weeks.  We watched a video about going to businesses, agencies and homes to do something for them without expecting or receiving any remuneration  - materially or verbally.  My wife and I served by going to a laundromat and gave quarters to people who came in for washing and drying their clothes.  The thrust of the program was to do something for people and simply say, "We are doing this to show the love of Christ."  This was done with hopes of leading them toward Christ as Savior and Lord.  This was known as Servant Evangelism or SE.  This is a good way to meet business people in the community.  offering to clean their bathroom, sweep their floor or do other chores as a show of love to them.

One of the first, if not the first, training programs that I was involved in included more extensive training than the preceding programs.  There was an elaborately written book (that I still have) that included the way to approach a person.  The program encouraged going out by two or three and have one to speak and the other(s) to pray silently.  This program included more information to learn and took some practice to be able to be the speaker.  The progress of the evangelistic presentation led to a time of opening to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This program was known as Evangelism Explosion or EE.

I have not shared these training programs to share my expertise or experience.  As I have confessed over the past couple years, "I cannot remember the last time I personally led someone to salvation by witnessing to them."  Yes, I have witnessed but haven't prayed with someone for salvation personally in too many months - even years.  I have prayed with people but have not prayed with them for salvation - or at least to hear their testimony of being saved.  God help me to continue witnessing in your power and love to make much of Jesus.

All of the above programs are for the purpose of helping to win the lost to Christ.  Each one of the programs have some good points.  In fact, using the positive points of each program could help in reaching and winning the lost to Christ.  Many people have been won to Christ with these tools.  I believe the Holy Spirit has used these tools in winning people to Christ.  Yet, much of the emphasis in these evangelistic tools is on giving something to the person, doing something with or for the person and/or techniques and steps on how to witness and what to say to people who need Christ as Savior and Lord.  These tools and steps are beneficial but can become rote or mechanical without prayerfully seeking the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit.

There is great need for Holy Spirit power in being a witnessing disciple of Christ.  Further, there is need of moving from compartmentalizing Christian witness and being a witnessing disciple of Christ 24/7.  We come to church to worship openly and publicly.  As disciples of Christ our daily lives are acts and actions of worship moment by moment.  This requires being sensitive to the Holy Spirit since He wants to glorify Christ in our lives everywhere and anywhere we are and being a witnessing disciple of Christ every moment of the day ready to share our personal testimony and lead them in prayer for salvation.  Being sensitive to the Holy Spirit through prayer and being intentional and alert to what the Holy Spirit is doing in people's hearts and lives is vital for being a witness for Christ.

The Holy Spirit desires to use Christ's disciples as powerful witnesses for Him.  The Holy Spirit wants to glorify Christ in our lives.  Each day the disciple of Christ should pray for opportunities to share Christ with others and remain alert to His leading and prompting.  The Holy Spirit has been given for power to witness.  As a disciple of Christ lives day by day, whether at work, school, at home or at the gas station, grocery store, neighbor next door - where ever and whoever we meet there is a golden opportunity to share our personal testimony for Christ and lead them to Him.  It was said of Dwight Moody that he would not end a day without sharing his testimony and the gospel of Christ with someone.  He preached many revivals but also witnessed daily to anyone and everyone who would hear him.  The fire of the Holy Spirit was burning inside and he fanned the flame to burn brighter and brighter day by day as he intentionally surrendered to the power of God to be a powerful witness for Christ.

Is the Holy Ghost burning in your heart to be a live-wire witness to someone of the awesome salvation that Christ brought to you?  Be alert!  Be ready!  The Holy Spirit is preparing hearts and lives for you to witness to and minister to.  People will feel the red-hot flame of the Holy Spirit burning in your heart.   Jesus said, after the Holy Ghost comes upon you ye shall be witnesses.  Burn, fire of God, burn to tell others the message of Jesus Christ - Savior, Lord and King of Kings.   God valued lost souls so much to give His only begotten Son to die on a cruel cross.  Help me to have the burden for lost souls until I can't rest until they are born into the kingdom of God.  To Him be glory for ever and ever!

Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman - The Tragedy

Can an "old-timer" chime in about this Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman tragedy?  At 63, I suppose I qualify as senior even if I still feel young at heart and continue to learn.   There are older folks that likely have more wisdom than I but surely we can all agree that it is a tragedy.  I call it a tragedy because that is what it is.  It is a tragedy for the Martin family, for the Zimmerman family and for the United States.  It is a tragedy for the Martin family of a son shot and killed.  It is the tragedy of threats and being in hiding for Zimmerman and his family after he has been found not guilty by a trial and jury.  It is a tragedy about divisiveness, ignorance, control and bitterness for the United States.  It is a tragedy that the devil is using to divide people in this nation over racism.  Forbear with me if you will and let me share some personal historical examples.

Let me begin with a little history of my boyhood days.  The following may sound distant, unrelated and unreal to those under age 40 or who grew up without the racial overtones.  I grew up hearing the N word frequently and a lot of negative stories about black people.  There were people in my family (sadly, still are) that used the N word with an extreme negative connotation.  There were off-colored (no pun intended) jokes and a general feeling of contempt for ALL blacks as being lazy and ignorant.  Of course that is not true.  That is not true of any race or ethnic group.  Certainly God knows more about ethnic groups in the world than any human and there are hundreds of races and thousands of ethnic groups - some that the Western world may not know about.  His Son died for all of them.

Even though the younger generation often uses the N word in a friendly manner towards each other, to this day, when I hear the N word I cringe because of the history of my boyhood days.  There were two elements, however, that kept me from being swallowed up in that negative N word divisive cultured atmosphere, the Bible and a church that taught the truth about races and ethnicity.  Sadly not every town and city where our local churches are/were in our denomination practice(d) it.  More about that later.

My Junior year of high school (1966) was the first year that black students were integrated into our school.  There was only one student - the son of one of the teachers at the African American school (Hampton School) in our county.  I was anxious for this student because I felt he was being unduly used to test the relational atmosphere of the white students for accepting a darker skinned student.  However, things went well, as far as I could tell, and there were no incidents or negative things said or done to this student.  The next year more black students came and, as far as I know, there was no racial tension and the relational atmosphere of the school was good.  Little did I realize that twenty-something years later I would face a different response to race than the peaceful integration of our high school.

Let me share this example that occurred at a church I served as pastor in the mid-late 1980s.  I am not going to name the church or location since I don't want to add an opportunity for more ignorance, control issues and bitterness to surface.  Some of those who are continuing to cry racism in the Martin/Zimmerman tragedy are showing their ignorance, control issues and bitterness.  Sending Zimmerman to the death table will not appease some or silence their racist rhetoric.  I honestly thought Zimmerman would get a guilty charge and some type of sentence but I accept and agree with the jury as a US citizen.  I digress.  My prayer is, "Dear Lord, save our nation from this divisive junk of the devil."  On with the example.

I was friends with a black evangelist (we are still friends) and felt led of the Lord and wanted to schedule him for revival.  The church and county was predominately white, in fact I did not see a dark-skinned person in the county the whole time I was there.  We scheduled the revival and the evangelist and his family came to stay with us in our rented house.  One day, I was in a local grocery store and one of the people who was an owner of the business said, "Preacher you better be careful, that house you are living in may get burned down with that black family in it."  This came as a shock to me even though I had heard some passing remarks about blacks not being welcomed in the county.  I remarked, "We are in revival at our church and he (the black evangelist) is doing some good preaching and you are welcome to come."  He just looked at me.  I left at that point thanking them for serving me.  Anyway, the revival continued.  The people at the church stated it was one of the best that the church ever had.  Our rented house did not get burned down.  God blessed greatly and lives were transformed by God's grace.  Now another twenty-something years has passed since that time.

Where are we today in the United States in regards to racism and the Martin/Zimmerman tragedy?  In my opinion, we are dealing with the divisive ways and lifestyles of those who continue in ignorance, and are used by controlling spirits and bitterness.  There are those who are truly ignorant and join in with the racist overtones, the racist marches and the racist riots that destroy property and human lives.  There are those who use the Martin/Zimmerman tragedy to thrust their control issues on a nation led by politically charged leaders that bring further division to a society that needs unity of purpose for accepting all races as creations of God to be respected and held in esteem as persons.  There are those who are so full of bitterness that every word spews out of their poisoned attitude with contempt and hate for those in any ethnic group but theirs.  Their attitudes, actions and speeches create a dangerous atmosphere of division that often leads to destructive rioting.  The media shows people roaming the streets all in the name of supporting Trayvon but what about the people who become violent and destructive?  Is that supporting any just cause?

One black pastor described the negative attitudes, actions and activities of some as only seeing through black eyes.  He could have as easily or rightly have said some are seeing only through their white eyes or whatever race they are.  What would happen if some of those who are captured in ignorance, control issues and bitterness would follow the example of some of the new generation that uses the N word for endearment?  What would happen if their focus was the unity and purpose of a nation that desperately needs God and His righteousness?  Yes the Martin/Zimmerman tragedy is real and it seems that it is leading to a travesty - a travesty for many in a nation who lose their common sense and join the emotionally charged actions of the ignorant, controlling and bitter.  We must seek God, rise above the racist attitudes, actions and activities and be what God has created us to be - ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.